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Maybe instead of tinkering with their lineup, the Senators would be better off calling in a tailor.

Because as it sits now, they’ve been unable to patch the hole in the middle of their lineup.

As a result, opportunities are falling through that hole and into the sewer.

The team prevents pucks from entering their own net just fine. Their goaltending has been outstanding. Their defence, once full of question marks, has done a better than decent job of defending.

Heading into Sunday’s NHL games, the team goals against average of 1.83 was, by a considerable margin, the best in the Eastern Conference. After the 1.82 mark posted by San Jose and Nashville, it was next best in the entire league.

But minus Jason Spezza, they are wasting too many brilliant efforts. In the seven games without their top centre, they have a 3-3-1 record because they have scored just 15 goals.

The guys who have been handed extra needles and thread have, for the most part, pricked themselves.

Centres Kyle Turris, Zack Smith, Peter Regin and Stephane Da Costa have no goals since Spezza disappeared Jan. 27. Jim O’Brien and Mika Zibanejad, who have split time between the middle and wing, have two and one, respectively. But nothing from them either while the Senators have lost four times in the past five games, including two 1-0 shutouts to a pair of backup goalies.

“And (Craig Anderson) and Bish (Ben Bishop) are unreal, they’re playing amazing,” Turris mused after Saturday’s inability to get a single puck past career journeyman Al Montoya while Bishop stopped 36 of 37 Winnipeg Jets shots.

“When they’re playing that well for us and giving us a chance, we want to help them out, too. We want to put at least one or two on the board, to give us a chance. They keep us in it for the full 60 minutes. We’ve got to do a better job of helping them out.”

As the first-line centre in Spezza’s absence, Turris has recorded five assists to move into the team’s scoring lead with 10 points. But after a fast start to the season, his goal-less slump has now reached eight games.

Turris has gone cold when the Senators have needed him to heat up.

“Collectively, we have to come together, and find ways to create offence,” he said. “I’ve got to do a better job of that myself.

“The season goes up and down, and I’ve got to find a way to get in front of the net and hack at rebounds, or put myself in better scoring opportunities.”

Coach Paul MacLean answered “no” when asked if Turris was giving the team everything he did three weeks ago.

“But players all go through cycles, and right now he’s in a down cycle,” said MacLean. “We have to work to get him out of it.”

More has to come from Milan Michalek and Daniel Alfredsson as well. Michalek, who led the team with 35 goals last season, has two in 12 games. That puts him on pace for eight in this shortened season, which is three less than Buffalo’s Thomas Vanek has now.

Alfredsson has two goals in his past three games to quiet any talk he was looking like a 40-year-old. On the season, though, he only has three.

“It’s not three guys,” MacLean said of the Michalek-Turris-Alfredsson first line that was going so well he broke it up. “The whole team has to be involved in generating offence.

“Obviously, those players have proven in the past that if they get enough opportunities, they’re going to score. But the whole team has to generate offence, not just three guys.”

The whole team hasn’t been doing nearly enough of that — but the defence is doing more than its share. Heading into the weekend, the Senators and Jets lead the league in most goals by blue-liners.

With five, Erik Karlsson is on pace for 20, which would be one more than he had while winning the Norris Trophy in a full schedule last year. Chris Phillips has chipped in with an unexpected three, while Sergei Gonchar has one.

There’s more to the game than scoring, of course, but not scoring wastes all that is going good for the Senators. And with Spezza possibly gone for the rest of the regular season, the Senators won’t even make the playoffs if they continue to hover around the .500 mark the way they have without him.

“We’re confident in ourselves, in the dressing room here,” said Turris. “We’re not happy with .500. We know we can do a lot better than that. We’re going to have to do it consistently.”

And in this case, “it” means something they haven’t done nearly enough of lately: Scoring goals.